Mother and Child

The taxi despatch was a noisy, hot little Kingdom and Marlene was the Queen sitting at its centre. Her youngest lay in a crib next to the despatch desk. I guess that made him the prince...

Marlene had a red face and her hair was piled up real high on her head and she used to sass and curse the drivers and they all loved her.

The big old deck in the corner was playing a Beatles tape and Marlene was singing along in between taking calls and yelling at the drivers over the radio. When it got to the bit that went "Beep-beep, beep-beep..Yeah!", we all (the two drivers drinking coffee and me, drinking a soda) all joined in and then we laughed...

We all sat there in the warm and the drivers went back out in their cabs and two or three more came in for a warm-up between jobs and Marlene sang along to the tape deck - Nowhere Man and Michelle - and then the little prince woke up and Marlene picked him up and held him in front of her face and sang to him - "There are places I remember" - and he went to sleep again and she laid him against her shoulder and smiled and hummed at him and I thought "Lady Madonna".